


We Couldn't Party Without You

by BirdyMarie



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Mild Angst, Multi, One-Shot, Threegulls, Threesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-12
Updated: 2016-10-12
Packaged: 2018-08-22 02:18:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8268953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BirdyMarie/pseuds/BirdyMarie
Summary: After all is said and done, Nathan asks Duke to help him plan Audrey's "birthday" dinner. Duke can't say no to Nathan or spoiling Audrey, or, as it turns out, being spoiled by them.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This has been languishing on my to-do list for months under the silly title of "pockets fic" because we all just wanted Nathan to put his hands in Duke's pockets. Thank you to serendipityxxi for beta'ing and Kedreeva for arsing and Jadzibelle for hand holding, this never would have happened without the three of you.

            Duke was in Nathan's kitchen. He had been invited there to help Nathan surprise Audrey for her birthday. Which was good. ...But it also sucked. Because he had to stop and take a few deep breaths every time he realized he was _in Nathan's kitchen_ . He was _at Nathan's house_ , _at Nathan’s invitation,_ where he had not been welcome just months ago, casually rifling through every drawer and cabinet and being allowed to find his way around. He gripped the corner of the counter, digging it into his palm, and tried to focus on that pain past his labored breathing. Sometimes, like when he thought about his daughter or Nathan’s son, he realized how constantly close to dying they had been, and it felt like an elephant was sitting on his chest. Then, other times, like when Audrey held his hand to get his blood tested or Nathan helped him nail the new deck at the Gull together, he realized how constantly close they all were, and that he was being chosen to stand with them, and it felt like the elephant was dancing.

  
            He should have stuck to his original plan of buying Audrey thebig expensive gray bottle of Delirium Tremens she always eyed at the Gull and leaving the actual birthday celebration to her actual boyfriend. As a Buddhist, he had mildly offended himself by agreeing to help Nathan bake her a cake and cook her a dinner without knowing why he did so. He knew himself inside and out and still could not say why this was a thing he was doing. What was he actually getting out of this exercise? Besides a sharp ache in his chest he could not attribute to any physical corners.

  
            When he could breathe again, he straightened from the counter and moved to the sink to wash the last of the used pans and utensils. There was a lovely set of porkchops baking in their own browning juices over rice and surrounded by bouquets of aromatic vegetables. One pan, full meal. The cake had already been icinged together and frostinged into festivity and left to wait for its recipient in the refrigerator. There was a plate of chocolate covered strawberries in the center of Nathan's round dining room table where the flowers would usually go. There were two perfectly appointed place settings with napkins folded into fans on the plates. All that was left was to clean up and...and make himself scarce. Duke shook the suds off his hands. He turned to look for a hand towel. Now would be as good a time as ever to slip away. Nathan had already gone to shower and change.

  
            Nathan was standing right behind Duke when he turned from the sink. He shouted wordlessly, collapsing back against the sink in relief when he realized who it was. His laugh sounded the slightest bit hysterical, even to his own ears. "You scared the bejeezus outta me," he said with a breathless laugh, straightening. Nathan did not move.

  
            Duke looked him over, brows drawing together. He could find nothing wrong in Nathan's squeaky clean and dudded up appearance to warrant the concerned look on the man's face.

  
            "You're not staying?" was all Nathan said.

            Duke did not know how to respond. “Uh, no?” After all, two was company but three was a crowd.

            “But, what about…?”

  
            Duke did laugh a little bit. Of course Nathan would be worried about finishing on his own. "Everything's good to go!" He looked up, going for bright. Nathan was still wearing his hard face, his decision making face. "You’ll be fine on your own from here. When the timer goes off you want to take the foil off the chops though, so that the...the tops can-"

            "Duke," Nathan tried again, and it still did things to the restauranteur's insides to hear the police chief say his name like that. He wanted to collapse against the other man, bury his face against that throat where the noise happened, hearing it when he was a mess like this. When Nathan was staring at him so intensely. When he felt like something important, something worth Nathan's attention. "Thank you."

  
            Duke swallowed thickly. He had always hated the way Nathan said thank you, and meant it. There was never anything more often false than gratitude except maybe apology, and Nathan always fucking meant them both. But he did not stop there. He stepped closer.

  
            "Couldn't have done this without you. Any of it." And Duke knew he meant more than just Audrey's birthday that wasn't really her own birthday.

  
            He shrugged and dropped his gaze, feeling the muscle jump in his jaw. Big of Nathan, to admit that he was getting his happy ending at the expense of Duke's. He was not sure he could muster telling Nathan he was welcome to it. Maybe after meditating. A lot. It was the right thing to do, he just did not know if he could do it yet. Which was apparently fine, because Nathan kept talking. Duke hoped the dismissal was coming shortly.

            "I know it," and his shoes stepped into Duke's purposely limited view. "And Audrey does, too." His hands reached into view as well...and slipped into the front pockets of Duke's jeans. His brain whited out. His eyes flicked up of their own accord; Duke could feel how uncomfortably wide they were. This...this had been well-charted territory, once. But there was Audrey, now. The rough knuckles of Nathan's long fingers dug into the soft space where Duke's legs joined his trunk and he had to breathe very carefully through his nose. He could not speak. His tongue in fact felt glued to the roof of his mouth. And Nathan's hands were in his pockets. Idly, he wondered if he had forgotten to hydrate while cooking and...and how long he was going to have to meditate to get over what was happening to Nathan's decision-face. Anything to stay separate from the moment Nathan recognized his panic and softened. "Stay," he began softly, head tilting to one side and weight shifting forward and hands pulling Duke by his jeans, but Duke's arm shot up between them as he cut him off.

  
            "Don't!" he barked, feeling the counter biting into the backs of his hipbones and focusing on that. Nathan stopped advancing but kept his fingers pressed to the tops of Duke's legs. "Don't," he tried again, angry because of how strangled he sounded, wishing he could put more bass in his voice but feeling weak in the knees and chest and fucking head because of this man and the woman they were waiting for.

  
            "Why?" Nathan asked, eyebrows doing the concerned confused thing. But he rocked back when Duke pushed him, fingers slipping from their sheaths.

  
            "C'mon," Duke replied, ignoring the stupid question. He cleared his throat. "Don't fuck with me about this." He hoped one of his rare moments of profanity-out-loud would quell the other man.

  
            "We're not." Nathan said it like he could not understand why Duke would even think otherwise. Meanwhile Duke's brain slipped and skidded over all that was entailed, implied, intimated by those two words. We. We meant Audrey, too. Nathan had included Audrey as someone who would not be fucking with Duke about an emotional space - and it had always been highly emotional, between the two of them - that Nathan had left behind years and lifetimes and worlds ago. He had no time to breathe for four or center focus. Duke dropped his gaze to somewhere around Nathan's navel, mouth dropping open as well with no words on his tongue. What did one say to something like that?

  
            "Look, Duke," Nathan shifted to lean against the counter too, then said it again like it was more than an attention getting measure, "look at everything you did today. And look at...at everything we needed you for when things were bad."

  
            Duke snorted at that, still looking toward the ground. Because when Nathan was exaggerating he was the king of hyperbole, but he could also understate with the best of them. He focused on the funny. If he thought of anything else he might stop breathing.

  
            And then he did stop breathing when Nathan's hand crossed into view and grasped his chin to turn his head. His gaze jerked up to those blue, blue eyes that had haunted him for years before finding their match. Nathan being Nathan, he just raised his eyebrows in Duke’s face, like that said anything. Duke licked his lips and swallowed, then pulled away. It was slower than he had intended, but all he wanted to do was lean into the contact sliding across and away from him. He compromised with himself. He shook his head at the last second, rubbing across Nathan’s fingers before disengaging completely. “C’mon,” he said, surprised at how clear he sounded. “I know my place. Which is away from here tonight, your place.” He stepped away, picking up the dish towel to wipe at his already dried hands. Otherwise he was going to wrap them around Nathan’s- he was jerked to a stop from his waist down.

            He looked back at Nathan over his shoulder. The man had grabbed him by his back pocket. Duke had always entertained the notion of putting his own hands in Nathan’s pockets after watching him protect himself all those years, with that Trouble. And son of a bitch if it was not every bit as hot as he thought it would be on the receiving end. It was just unfair.

            “We know your place, too,” Nathan was saying. Duke’s gaze flicked between his smug face and his firm hand. There was that ‘we’ again. “And it’s right here with us.” And he was doing that thing, too, that self-satisfied thing where he talked out the side of his smirk.

            He tugged on Duke’s pocket again, “Stay, we want you to.” He looked open and earnest and Duke wanted to punch him. Because he knew he was special, Nathan _knew_ he was what Duke always ran back to, even when they were kids. And he also knew how special Audrey was, hell, felt the same way about her Duke did. They had just gotten back to tentative friends. Duke absolutely did not want to mess that up by complicating things with sex. Which was what this looked to be, from where he was standing.

            “Nate-” Duke cleared his throat and tried again. How hard was it to take a hint, seriously. “Nate, we’re not-”

            “See?” Nathan interrupted with another tug. It rocked him back a step. “How hard was that? ‘We’ are.” Duke made no response. “We’re a team. Been a good team for months, if not years.”

            There seemed to be no more forthcoming, and it was not enough by a long shot, Duke felt glimmers of hope racing through his chest and yes cock and also stomach but _how did he know this was allowed_. He needed...he needed away, really, but he wanted…

            He wrapped one hand around Nathan’s wrist and gently slid the other man’s hand out of his back pocket. He held that strong hand in both of his, for a moment, thinking how it had once mapped just about every place on his own body and then let it go without any attempt at a chase. He licked his lips and tried to come up with a way to explain how this could not happen between them. Not with things sat the way they were between all three of them, really. He looked up into Nathan’s eyes.

            Then realized his mistake.

            Nathan’s eyes were in Nathan’s face which was looking at Duke like he had hung the moon. Nathan’s fingers were wrapping around Duke’s hand and drawing him closer. And then Nathan’s lips were on Duke’s and really, as much as he prided himself on his strength, there were some things Duke would never be able to overcome.

            And one of them was Nathan Wuornos.

            The kiss was slow and thorough, the way Nathan always had been. The hand sliding into Duke’s hair was sure and strong, and it sent a thrill through Duke’s middle to realize Nathan could feel him now. He stepped into it, resting his own hands on Nathan’s still-warm-from-the-shower hips.

            He stepped back, hands flying up in surrender. Or at least he meant it in surrender, he meant it as a white flag, get out of dodge gesture. Nathan was warm for Audrey, was clean and gussied and sultry...and pulling him back in with both hands. Duke’s raised arms fell around Nathan’s broad shoulders as he fell back into the rhythm of their kiss.

            It was the same as it had ever been and yet new. Nathan still leaned his head to the right, but there was a new firm confidence in the way his tongue traced and teased over Duke's own. He found himself smiling and wondering how much Audrey made that difference. Desire welled up through him, wondering how she felt when Nathan did this to her. Then it broke over him again in a wave when Nathan stepped between his legs and slid sideways to bite at Duke's collarbones just where he had always liked. He moaned it out, let Nathan hear how much that still affected him, how much he still-

  
            There was so much happening, and Duke did not let a lot get away from him but the moment was growing legs. Hands were everywhere and his elbow connected with a doorframe somehow, but the jolt and repositioning just made him laugh at old times and realize there was an entire head of damp, clean, soft hair begging to be mussed under his hands. He gave a shameless whine at the first touch of Nathan's fingertips under his shirts. He was shuffled backwards and hitched higher on a lean thigh that was much more satisfying than it had any right to be for being fully clothed but thicker than he recalled. They finally broke for air and Duke licked his swollen lips while he glanced around and realized - he had one foot on the bottom step. They were rooms away from the kitchen where this had started. He could see Nathan's shirt in the hallway behind them; the corner of his own sweater peeked out from around the doorframe.

             Duke looked down at Nathan, cradled in his arms, who looked back at him with a wondrous expression.

  
            "Audrey?" he rasped.

  
            Nathan looked up at him from under those bright lashes, smile spreading like the warm lick of wildfire over his entire face, body, and being. "She knows the way."

  
            The husky declaration that she would be joining them had Duke's eyelashes fluttering as he dove back in to instigate the next kiss. Where he had been mostly reacting, he invited this time. He nipped and licked and sucked, gripping and tugging and leading the way up the stairs backwards. He lost his undershirt somewhere along the way. They both laughed when his shoulder caught on the doorframe, same as always, and he moaned unabashedly when the pause brought their chests into contact. He arched into it, feeling a swell of pride at the noise Nathan let out when Duke rubbed the heel of his hand against the insistent press of Nathan's cock through their clothes.

  
            "I take back every Pinocchio joke I ever made," he murmured against the sensitive shell of Nathan's ear, then nipped at the lobe. Nathan bucked into Duke's hand and they shared a wicked grin. Some things never changed.

            Duke was the one to tug them into the bedroom. _Nathan’s_ bedroom.

            Nathan followed him, and that tugged at something deep in his chest. Nathan was pursuing him, Nathan's hands were spread wide over his skin like he needed as much as he could get at once, Nathan was rolling his tongue over Duke’s own with intent. He drew back from the kiss a bit just to watch Nathan's face, his gorgeous face, when he chased it. Duke found himself cupping Nathan's neck on both sides as those spread hands finally reached the waistband of his jeans. His hair was soft, his neck was warm, and his pulse was pounding against the heel of Duke's hand. He liked it.

  
            He also liked Nathan's growl of frustration when he found the second button on Duke's pants.

  
            "What the fuck did you ever see in button-fly pants," he griped, and Duke tossed his head back for a breathy laugh at the memory of early nineties fashion. He was rewarded with Nathan's mouth on his own neck, felt a spot on his chin he had missed shaving and moaned. He let himself be guided back and down, reached back to find the soft covers on the bed. This was really happening.

  
            He could not help the way he chased Nathan's mouth himself when the other man drew back.  He would not name the noise of loss he made either. He was too busy memorizing the new beauty in Nathan's aroused face as an adult. His hands dropped to either side of his head, helplessly pressed back into the bed under the scrutiny. There was a thin rim of blue around Nathan’s fuck-blown pupils, and they bored into Duke's own with pleased confidence, even as he fumbled with the rest of his buttons. Where once he would have made a face and looked away, they never broke eye contact as Nathan slid Duke's jeans down his legs. He did not quip about the lack of underwear or brag when he expertly slipped a finger in each sock to drag off with his boat shoes as well. The weight of that stare made it almost as hard to breathe as the elephant.

  
            To try and get out from under the moment, Duke toed at Nathan's own waistband. "Why are you wearing a belt," he asked, slipping a foot in on either side and pushing. It raised him off the bed a bit, and Nathan reached out to catch his ass in both hands. Duke tried to catch the gasp, tried to lengthen it out to match the warm slide of those hands over his skin.

            "Y'know I'm gonna count that as a mistake," Nathan said matter-of-factly, then kneaded at the muscles in his hands and Duke whined, head tossing back and eyes falling shut of their own accord. He never wanted Nathan to stop touching him again, that could never be a mistake - and then Nathan did and Duke whipped up as far as his elbows at the loss.

  
            But he was caught by that blue stare again, frozen in place, panting, mouth open, and remembered Nathan was talking about his belt, which he was undoing, while looking at Duke. Nathan did grin a little, then, tipping his squared jaw up and licking his own open, swollen mouth. Duke raised up in time with his tongue sliding back in his mouth, hooked on this man his old flame had become. With shaking hands he helped Nathan shove his slacks off his hips, smiled at his sleek black briefs, knew he was getting in the way when Nathan nudged his wrist with his elbow. So he slid his hands up Nathan's back as the other man leaned down onto the bed to start crawling over Duke's body. He ran the arch of one foot down the back of Nathan's thigh to find the fabric, then pushed it completely off one leg. He had to come back up and hook his toe in a sock, but he could be helpful, damn it.

  
            His fingers bumped over a scar, right as Nathan's mouth came back into reach. Duke tilted his head at the last second to bump their foreheads together. Nathan leaned away a little, eyebrows quirking in a question. Duke was unsure what his own face did, but he hoped it communicated his gratitude that Nathan was still warm and alive and distracting above him. He spread his palm to cover the shape of the gunshot, and that seemed to be enough. Nathan smiled, wide and true, then dove in to press Duke back against the mattress with a deep, reassuring kiss.

  
            Duke moaned and wrapped his arms and legs around Nathan, rolling not to fight it, but to feel more of the precious weight of him, and finally felt like he could breathe.

            Of course Nathan then knocked the air right out of him by rolling his own hips. He swallowed Duke's breathy moan, tongues mimicking their hips' motions. It was as good as it had always been between them and better for the time that had passed. Duke threaded all ten of his fingers into Nathan's hair, following the press of Nathan's hands along his sides, writhing and rocking wherever they guided. When Nathan finally released him from the thorough plunder, he let whatever sounds came fly. Nathan feathered light brushes of lips under his ears, sucked the knob of one clavicle, licked hard over one nipple, each spot with its own memory of days and nights stealing time together. He bit down on Duke's floating rib and Duke gave a bark of laughter. The first time he had gone down on Nathan had not been smooth. Nathan chuckled himself while Duke rolled his head around to see his eyes. They shared a soft smile. Duke was taking a slow breath to speak, to maybe...thank? Share some sentiment that the moment was good and he was glad they were there.

  
            Then Nathan dipped his head down and swiped a trail of Zs up the underside of Duke's cock with his flat tongue.

  
            He shouted wordlessly instead, hands flying to his own head to fist in his hair. It was all he could do to hang on to himself. Nathan had been very into anatomy and physiology when they were in high school. The oral skills he had developed with the study had not diminished over time. He showed this off by wasting no more time and swallowing Duke down. Duke tried valiantly not to buck into his friend's mouth, having learned courtesy and contol himself over the years and partners, but Nathan apparently had other plans. He brushed light fingernails over the bottoms of both asscheeks. Duke keened and arched. He should have known. He knew, because Nathan had told him, that there were clusters of nerves there that were useful in goosing, spanking, grabbing, scratching, caressing, and any other number of interesting sensations that Duke concentrated on listing so that he did not explode right then and there. He lifted easily after that, when Nathan began wedging his fingers between Duke's backside and the mattress. He laughed as he moaned, wondering idly how long Nathan had been waiting to get his hands on Duke's well-developed and carefully cultivated ass. Those long, warm fingers gave a ripple. It had to have been a long time.

  
            Nathan was just rubbing one hand up Duke's abdomen, bumping over his clenched muscles, Duke knew he was on his way to toy with a nipple, he wondered if piercing was still in Nathan's mind - then the door bumping open against the wall shocked him into awareness. He scrambled away, up the bed, reaching for the alarm clock to throw if need be. But it was even worse than an intruder. Maybe?

  
            Audrey was sprawled against the door hinge, mouth open, chest heaving from he guessed running up the stairs after the trail of clothes, and her eyebrows were quirked together in...hope? "Really?" She breathed, and yes that was definitely a note of excitement in place of any anger or hurt. "Really, for my birthday?"  
And Duke remembered Nathan saying "we," saw the way she could not quite decide where she wanted to look, and thought, well why the fuck not. It was, indeed, the lady's birthday. He reached out to her, convinced by the way her eyes shone in wonder more than anything else that she was onboard with this plan.

  
            He had never seen a woman get undressed that fast. Leave it to Audrey to show him something new. Nathan barely had time to nod along and her blouse, camisole and bra were on Nathan's floor with Duke's pants and socks and shoes. And was that not just a heady thought. Her fingers threaded through his as she cupped the side of his face with her other hand, bending down to kiss him. Kissing Audrey was just as enthralling as kissing Nathan. He had kissed both his favorite people today. He surged up into her mouth, needing more of her, reaching to slide a hand inside the waistband of her skirt at her hip, feeling the tug from the other side that told him Nathan was helping while she pressed into him insistently. She wore no underwear, either. He smiled into the kiss. Atta girl.

            She pressed him back, gently but with intent, letting his fingers loose to snake her hand up into his hair and support herself on the back. Her other hand trailed down his body, fingers bumping over his clavicle, his nipple, his ribs, the sensitive skin of his flank. He twitched and writhed for her, hoping she could tell how much he liked being pet by his enthusiastic exploration of her mouth. He could not catch breath enough to moan until wet heat sank back down onto his dick. She laughed indulgently, breaking their kiss to smile down at him. Then she looked back and Duke shook with the weight of knowing she was _enjoying_ watching them, he could smell it wreathed around them. He turned from Nathan's movement to look down Audrey's golden body where it was displayed above him. Then was grateful he did, so he could watch Nathan palm _Audrey's_ ass as well, and guide her up, up towards Duke's head. And for his part, Duke agreed wholeheartedly. He smiled along to the giddy thrill Audrey's laugh raised in his chest, reaching for the backs of her thighs to guide them to either side of his face. It took some maneuvering, but within a few short moments he was reaching up to taste her for the first time. Despite Nathan's best efforts, nothing compared to the creak of the headboard under Audrey's grip. He was in Nathan's bed, with Nathan's girlfriend. He pressed his lips and teeth and tongue up harder. She rewarded him with a moan that even sounded golden in the fading sunset.

  
            Duke reached up to give her more, teasing at her sensitive glands with one hand and sliding his other up, up, up, and she twitched and rolled as much as he did under his rough palms, until he found and plucked a nipple. Idly, he wondered if she had one nipple more sensitive than the other and moaned up into her at the thought of exploring the possibility. Nathan sucked harder, and Duke sighed into Audrey's wetness, making her mewl above him. He dipped deeper into her, wriggling his hips without lifting them, using the flat of his tongue to make Audrey cry out. He decided he might have found his favorite feedback loop.

            "Guys," Audrey keened out amidst her gasping, "I don't think...I can't stop-"

  
            Nathan ran his hot, open mouth down the underside of Duke's cock, "So don't," he said, like it was the most reasonable thing in the world, while he squeezed the base of Duke's leaking cock against the vibrations he was making.

  
            "Unh-hnh!" Duke agreed, falsetto voce and not giving half a merry fuck. He cupped one hand behind her, kneading where her backside was sensitive, urging her closer. She pressed down with a cry, and he lapped it up from under her. He would be happiest if these two people he loved more than life itself used him to within an inch of his own. He ran his other hand back down, slipping a single finger inside of her to search for the area with the most give, the least resistance. She sighed, sinking down onto him and jerking between the hand on her ass and the hand probing her core. His head spun drunkenly at the knowledge that he was allowed to claim that noise as his own. Then he found what he was looking for, and all other thought flew from his head.

  
            Audrey jerked away from him, as he knew she would do, crying out and trying to escape the overwhelming sensation. He dug greedy fingers into the flesh of her backside, loving it and holding her to him while he panted up into her, flicking where she was most sensitive with both his finger and his tongue, moaning along with her when his cock twitched against the back of Nathan's throat and he changed his angle _because he could feel it_ , reveling in the noises all three of them were making together. He kept her there, on the edge of too much, guided her through it until she was arching and moaning on each exhale, seeking the depth out herself and riding his face the way he had wanted from the start. He reached back up to pay attention to the nipple he had neglected and encountered another warm, hard, calloused hand. His hips jerked of their own accord. This was really happening. He was in Nathan's house, in Nathan's bed, having Audrey and Audrey's boyfriend, wreathed in their scents and the symphony of their sounds.

  
            Nathan popped off and pressed him back into the bed, probably recognizing how close he was, and Duke tandemly cursed and thanked him inside his own mind. The mattress shifted under him and two warm, taut thighs climbed up towards Audrey's seat. Duke relinquished the ground to Nathan's spreading hands, dropping his own to aid in breaking Audrey apart from the bottom up. He spread her open with one thumb, pressing hard with his teeth behind his upper lip while his tongue and finger still worked at her most focused places, stomach clenching under the promising weight of Nathan's cock. She finally stilled above him, mouth open but silent, then trembled from her head down to the legs on either side of Duke's head. He could feel the results of her orgasm running down his chin and cheeks while she sobbed and shook, then the affect it had on Nathan where he was rubbing into the hard muscles of Duke's abdomen, and knew he had found his favorite place as well.

            With a final moan that was probably more from satisfaction than any sensation, Audrey slid back, leaving a trail of saliva and slick down the center of Duke's chest. He wished it left a visible stain, so everyone would know he was hers in more pleasant ways than before. She settled on his stomach, smiling down at him like she was the one who had accomplished something. That was fine. He smiled lazily back up at her. Share and share alike, credit where credit was due. She fell towards him in an arc that was almost languid, while Nathan’s weight shifted away to make room for her rear, and her smile landed on his. He took a deep breath of it through his nose, felt her doing the same.

            Duke rolled Audrey under him to kiss her thoroughly, properly. For her part, she grasped his necklaces to pull him down faster, harder. His cock slotted into place along her folds and he felt her shudder, ran a hand down her neck to cup and play with her breast just so she would do it again. He broke the kiss with a grin, met her heavy-lidded eyes, and it was just them for a moment. Which was great, but also not...not quite...and he read it in the line between her brows, she felt it too. He turned to look over his shoulder while she leaned over to one side to look for Nathan. For his part, the other man was kneeling at the foot of the bed, smiling fondly, contented face completely at odds with his full erection. He crawled up the bed at their look, knowing it for the summons it was, and settled himself along Duke's back.  
Duke couldn't help it, he mewled at the contact. Deep in his core he was throbbing at the awareness of what that weight on him meant, what it brought, what he was ready for. He felt large, warm hands cup his bottom and spread it open. He arched up into it wantonly, mouth falling open when he felt Nathan's cockhead rubbing over his hole. He rolled Audrey's taut little nipple between the knuckles of two fingers while doing the same to Nathan's dick with his ass. Her wetness moved over his own, and the tease was spectacular.

  
            "Missed this," Nathan murmured against his ear, which yeah, okay, shut up Nathan, reminders were not needed in the moment.

  
            Audrey must have seen his face and agreed, because she reached past him to take Nathan by the back of the neck and haul him into a kiss. They were kissing over Duke's shoulder, his two favorite people on the earth, and he was allowed to be part of it. He could nuzzle both of their cheeks, press his forehead to it, like something sacred. And then be worshipped, himself, in turn.

            Audrey started it, which was more to the usual turn of events - and Duke’s brain stalled out for just a moment, realizing he was here entirely through Nathan’s orchestrations - by grounding him in the moment with lifted knees to rub against Duke’s ribs. He writhed between them, enjoying the satiny feel of her smooth skin compared to the prickle and rub of Nathan's calves on either side of his own. Then his back bowed at the suck and press of lips against his spine. He threw his head back to moan, breaking the kiss with Audrey, arching into her while Nathan kissed his way around the sensitive spots on Duke's back. Her hands slid down his chest and stomach while Nathan's slid down to rest on Duke's hips. They wrangled there for space and there were breathless giggles all around.

            "I would say it's time for stuff," Audrey said, voice low and thick with the laughter and the lust.

  
            "Yes," Duke moaned, mouthing between her breasts. The cold while Nathan moved to the bedside table was regrettable, but the view was not. In fact, Duke thought having Audrey to exchange appreciative smiles with over Nathan's tiny backside could count as a solid success. He turned back to her, studied her studying him. He leaned his forehead down onto hers and she scrunched up her smile, making a pleased little sound. He kissed her again, just to better appreciate the shape of it.

  
            They both startled at the crinkled noise of the foil packet hitting the pillow next to her head. Duke reached for it, only to have his hand smacked away. He made a face down at Audrey and tried for the damned thing again, but she scrabbled it down behind where he could comfortably reach.

  
            "Audrey, it is going to be past time for stuff if you don't let me-"

  
            "It's for Nathan," she broke in.

  
            Duke stared down at her, dumb at the thought.

  
"This is for you," Nathan murmured hotly against his ear, then trailed a slicked finger along Duke's exposed perineum.

            His eyes fell shut and his head dropped. Audrey moaned, and he pried his eyes open enough to make sure he was only clenching the pillow in his fist and not some of her hair. He rocked back and forth, against her and against him, feeling more than hearing the high keen in his throat. He leaned down to lick at Audrey's neck, down over the swell of her breasts, over her nipples, anything to concentrate on besides himself and the trail and tease that was blanking out his mind. Nathan hooked a finger into Duke's tight rim just as Audrey trailed feather light fingertips up the underside of his cock.

  
            " _Mulu pirapancattin paricu_ ," he ground out, heard their triumphant laughter and included it in the Tamil prayer. The hysterical thought wandered through his mind that his own birthday wasn't for another few months and yet here he was, getting gifts. He pushed back onto Nathan's hand at the thought, then rocked down into Audrey's exploring, learning, searching hands. She at first seemed in no rush for more than mapping his skin, and then was suddenly pressing him between her silken lips. He sobbed into her shoulder and felt like his breath was coming freely for the first time in years.

  
            Then she pressed him back by his chest with a breathless, "Wait!" and all the air sucked out of him as he reared back out of her space. He did not even have enough to grunt when Nathan's finger slipped further than he was strictly ready for. He threw his hands up and off of her, only to have Nathan catch one lightly to bring to his mouth for light kisses. Duke's attention stayed centered on Audrey, though, on her heaving chest and outstretched fingers and mostly her wildly dilated and yet still wholly focused eyes.

  
            "If this is too much, too soon, Nathan can get another one."

  
            Her meaning took a second to pass through his panic and fuck fogged mind. Then, he laughed. He laughed, cock jumping pleasantly while he tightened around Nathan's digit. He laughed in Audrey's face. At her concept of "too soon," at the fact that she said Nathan could get the damned thing, at her concern for his well being. He leaned forward, arm bending awkwardly as Nathan refused to let go of it at first, kissed her while Nathan started teasing him with a second finger.

  
            Then he rocked down into her and she mewled under him. "Audrey," he moaned, trailing his mouth down her neck, sliding both hands under her backside to lift her to him while her fingers urged him onward. "This may never be enough." He bit down on her collarbone, sheathing himself in her fully while she cried out under him. He moaned and rolled out and back in through her twitching, trying to keep the rhythm steady for her while keeping himself spread for Nathan.

            She felt like the heaven he had never believed in, like the nirvana and enlightenment and everything he had chased before he found her right back home, in Haven. She was already wonderfully swollen and pliant from her orgasm, and he was pleased to see her nipples darkening to indicate another on the way. Her muscles flexed against where he held her, and he changed his hold to one hand so he could balance on the other and give everything she asked for with no restraint.

            He was very pleased to find it would not be required of him. “Yeah,” he heard Nathan growl behind him, making Audrey gasp along with him. The fingers withdrew and the packet crinkled again and Duke was grateful for it because in the strictest sense he was unprepared for the liaison but _he was so motherfucking ready._ The base of his spine and the top of his head started tingling, and he felt the muscles in his shoulders start to visibly twitch and shake.

            Nathan chuckled darkly and pressed against Duke from thighs to nape. “Already?” He murmured. It vibrated into Duke’s back and he shouted, thrusting harder. Audrey keened, fingernails biting into his hips. He tossed his head and turned to husk at Nathan.

            “You try going so long without.”

            Nathan made a sympathetic noise, then nuzzled kisses into Duke’s temple and neck and shoulder before making enough space to slot his wrapped cock in between Duke’s cheeks. He abruptly dropped Audrey’s hips back to the mattress to fist his hand in the sheets.

 

            She startled, and Duke gave a breathless chuckle at her wide-eyed return to awareness. She immediately took revenge, shifting her hips against where he was still half inside her and laughing at the helpless noises he made. Nathan breached him slowly and Duke sighed from deep in his chest. Audrey reached up and ran gentle fingers over his eyebrows, his nose, his mouth. He nipped at her thumb as it went by. Realizing it was probably rude to leave the lady waiting, he shifted his weight onto his off hand so he could press a knuckle to her clit. Audrey yelped and flopped back to arch and roll along his length on her own while he waited for Nathan to fully seat himself. Duke could not help twitching along with her movements, and Nathan's fingers dug into his ass in time with her cries.

  
            He dropped his head to her shoulder, shaking and not caring. Her fingers chased tingles through his hair and down his back - he was too big for his skin, Nathan was working him open and letting him free, pressed tight between them. His arm buckled and he sunk back into Audrey to the hilt, feeling Nathan do the same behind him. They all three shared a broken sigh. To Duke, it sounded suspiciously like a sound of om.

  
            He rocked his head back and forth against Audrey's shoulder, scraping his beard against her and raising gooseflesh to match his own while they spasmed on the edge of control. "Fuck," he exhaled against her neck.

  
            "Yes," she whimpered to the sky.

  
            "Fine," Nathan growled, gravel hard in his throat. He reared back, grasped Duke's hips with both hands, then pulled. Duke shouted at the hard movement, then keened as Nathan's firm grip pushed his hips down to meet Audrey's. He felt her head moving next to his on the pillow but could not open his eyes to look for fear of exploding right then. She gave a long moan he would never forget, then let go of his head, only for her hands to join with Nathan's on his hips.

  
            That was everything Duke had ever wanted. He moaned and cried, letting himself be moved, used by these two people he loved beyond all reason. He reached down between himself and Audrey, again pressing a knuckle where she needed it, and she pressed back this time, seeking her own end. He thanked his lucky stars, because his was barreling down the length of him, curling his toes and coiling deep inside where Nathan was working himself to completion.

            Audrey’s fingernails dug into his hips and her mouth fell open. Duke smiled down at her, swelling with the knowledge that _he knew what that meant._ He lifted up a little and Nathan let him, one hand flattening against his chest to help support their efforts. His chin hooked over Duke’s shoulder, which, _hot_ , and he tightened his stomach to give the man a good show. He switched to using his thumb on Audrey’s clit, giving him more control. She gasped, gripped him tighter and pulled him hard against her. He could feel her walls shaking against him, ran his tongue over his lower lip to chase the ghost of how she tasted. Nathan moaned and shook against his back. Yes, this was absolutely everything he had ever wanted. He reached to hitch one of Audrey's legs higher, wrapped one of his feet around Nathan's calf. With renewed vigor, he joined their motions and once again became an active participant in his using.

            They moved as one, from there. Audrey hooked a heel on Nathan’s back, lifting herself higher for Duke to drive into while it seemed Nathan rocked deeper each time. He tried to pant out a warning, made barely any sound, then Audrey was reaching to pull him down into a kiss. She arched higher and harder, then gave one solid tug on his hair. Stars exploded behind his eyelids and he shuddered to a halt against the back of her, felt his own liquid motions inside of her, sobbed at the echoes inside himself from Nathan’s own end. He breathed deep and sighed out. It was his first weightless breath of air in probably his entire life.

            Behind him, Nathan gave a few final thrusts. Duke laughed, sending a puff of Audrey’s hair over her face. She laughed back as she brushed it away, turning to meet his fuzzy gaze. “Has he always done that?”

            “Yeah,” Duke murmured back, “he never wants to be done.”

            “Would you?” Nathan grumbled, rolling off of Duke and pulling him along, into the space between them. “Would you want to be done with either of you?”

            Duke settled onto his back, shaking the hair from his eyes and just catching his breath. “Guess I never really thought about myself like that before. But her, no.”

            Audrey gave a bark of laughter. Duke saw her stretch her legs and spread her little toes. Yeah. He felt a sympathetic twinge in his own hips. They were getting no younger. He would have to massage her later to make up for the aches left from their enthusiasm. If she let him.

            She sat up with a loud groan and a stretch of her arms over her head. Duke could not look away from her while she rearranged herself onto her knees until Nathan propped himself up on an elbow and smiled down at him in solidarity. They had made her that pleased with herself.

            Her hands slapped down onto her thighs and she glared past Duke at Nathan. “So what happened to the plan, huh?”

            Duke quirked an eyebrow and turned to Nathan. “Plan?”

            “He was leaving, I had to improvise,” Nathan said.

            “We had a plan,” Duke said, catching Nathan’s eye.

            “I lied about _our_ plan.”

            Duke took a moment to digest that. “Nathan Wuornos! I would have never expected it of you!”

            “Yeah, well. Y’want somethin’ to work this much…” His blue eyes dropped to the sheets between them. Duke drew back to study his face, and it was back to the hard, decision making face from earlier. He turned to Audrey’s gaze, like and so unlike Nathan’s. She looked at him softly, and reached to rub a hand over his shin.

            “I’ve never wanted anything to work this much,” she said.

            “So what, uh,” Duke had to clear his throat and try again, “What are you workin’ on?” Her answering smile was almost as stupid as Nathan’s.

            “We’re wooing you,” he mumbled beside Duke’s ear.

            Duke’s eyebrows almost flew off his face and he chuckled. “You’re what?”

            “Mmm-hmm,” Audrey pretty much purred, crawling up his body and leaning over to tease her words against his mouth instead of kissing him properly. “There were going to be soft persuasions and gentle suggestions.”

            “Oh really,” he replied, just as quietly, afraid if he talked too loud or moved too quickly, he would wake whichever of them was dreaming.

            “Probably games of footsie,” Nathan said, nuzzling into Duke’s ear and raising goosebumps down his neck. He arched to keep Nathan’s breath ghosting over the sensitive areas, subsequently brushing his lips over Audrey’s. She leaned back, though, just out of reach and pouting in a way Duke wanted to kiss until it was gone. Or at least until he could make her piercing eyes close and stop pinning him to the bed.

            “You tried to leave,” she said. “On my birthday.”

            Nathan sat up on one elbow, looking mournful himself for having saved the day. They were both looking down at Duke, and he got the distinct impression they were feeling the same kind of regressional anxiety that put the elephant back on his chest.

            “I…” He just wanted them to be happy. That was all he ever wanted. With or without him. Duke just did not know how to tell _them_ that. He shrugged, then looked down to his laced fingers. “I just figured, y’know. Two’s company…”

            There was a moment of silence where Duke thought rescue was not coming. Then Audrey snorted. His eyes flicked up under his lashes and fringe to look at her indulgently curled lip. “And three’s a frickin’ party!”

            He could not deny her the laugh, disbelieving though it was. He looked away, only to find Nathan’s soft and knowing grin above him as well. “What kind of party could we have without you, Duke?”

            This time, Duke let himself press forward, wrapping a hand behind Nathan’s head and nuzzling his face into the man’s neck where that sound came from. He had no other response for what they were doing to him. Audrey, who always knew what he meant even when he had no words, giggled and leaned down to snuggle into their tangle of affection. He wrapped an arm around her and pressed a hand flat over the back of her heart, which was still pounding a little. He felt his own chest give a little hiccup, pressed his eyelids closed against tears - then was saved any further poignancy by Audrey’s stomach letting out a tremendous gurgle.

            His eyes popped open into Nathan’s hair. “Oh, _fuck,_ the chops!”

            Nathan flopped back, guffawing on the bed.

            Audrey sat up straight as well, still straddling one leg of each. “Chops?”

            Duke ran a hand over his face. An afternoon of work, wasted. “We made pork chops for dinner,” he said flatly.

            “He made pork chops, I watched,” Nathan said, jerking a thumb.

            “Well I don’t hear the fire alarm,” Audrey said pleasantly enough.

            Duke scowled up at her while Nathan snorted unhelpfully. “They’ll be _dry_.”

            She shrugged like it was no big deal. “So we put ketchup on them.”

            He swore sometimes she said these things just to get his blood pressure up.

            “Well,” Nathan said thickly, finally past his chuckles, “At least there are strawberries.”

            Audrey cocked her head at him. Duke said nothing, remembering one of the reasons he had wanted to make himself scarce before dinner. He had not precisely asked Nathan’s opinion on the centerpiece, he had just done it.

            “Duke made chocolate covered strawberries,” Nathan said, laying it out there like it was nothing.

            Audrey paused, and Duke could see his heartbeat under his pec in the periphery of his vision. He hoped those were a thing she liked. Turned out he had no cause for concern.

            "I," she pronounced, with that special kind of stillness that meant all of her “I”s, "have never had those before." She sounded impressed and contemplative all at once. She slid backwards off of them, off the bed, onto her feet, smooth and graceful and feline, and disappeared out the door.

  
            Duke blinked after her. Then he looked over at Nathan, who looked just as bewildered as himself. Then, Duke watched him realize: "Shit! My blinds are up." He struggled to his feet while Duke laughed at the way his eyes and mouth and beautiful face had changed. He rolled out the opposite side of the bed, taking his time while Nathan hopped on one foot out the door, struggling into his pants and calling after Audrey.

  
            ...Not his pants. "Nathan!" Duke called after him, but the top of his head was already disappearing down the stairs, taking Duke's pants with him. Well fuck. He ducked back into the bedroom, checking behind the door and finding that ugly navy and green bathrobe still there. It would have to do, if Nathan was that worried about the neighbors. He hurried down the stairs after them.

  
            Nathan was just finishing the blinds in the living room when Duke rounded the corner from the hall. Then Audrey came in from the other side, holding the plate of strawberries in both hands. Duke had to sag back against the wall. She had topped off her ensemble with his sweater. He could see a strip of skin from the collar down to the top of Nathan's boxers. She stepped over the arm of the couch and sat on it with her feet wedged under the cushion.  Simple motions that he had seen her do before, made hypnotic under the shape of his own and Nathan's clothes.

  
            "You could have half a care, y'know," Nathan was griping with a smile.

  
            Audrey grinned, looking at Duke while she said, "Don't yell at me, it's my birthday," and bit into the first berry. Her eyelids fluttered shut and he had to breathe deep again through his nose. He had done that. He gave her that. She had never had those before.

  
            "People'll be talkin' about us enou..." Nathan had turned from the window. Duke finally looked away from Audrey's pleased face. Nathan was staring at Duke, mouth slack, eyes wide and roaming all over him, hands raised like he was ready to get them all over him again.

  
            Duke swallowed hard against the noise that climbed his throat, putting his hands behind his back and leaning hard into them to feel the edge of the door jamb. If it had been a moan or a sigh or a come-on, he would have let fly. But it was more sob than anything else. He had missed that look, directed at him.

  
            "Oh my god, Duke, these are delicious," Audrey said through a thick mouthful, breaking the spell. Duke turned back to her and smiled. "Thank you for remembering."  
He cocked his head, brows furrowing. He had done no such thing.

  
            She looked at him with raised eyebrows, like he should know what she was talking about. She waved a strawberry at him. "That I had never had these before?"  
Duke felt his cheeks heat and had a moment to marvel at his own physiology - he had just had sex with both of these people and he blushed at having to admit his motivations for doing something nice.

  
            "I, uh-" Stuttering! She was making him stutter, he had to cash his cad card in today apparently, "I didn't."

  
            Audrey cocked her head and popped another strawberry in her mouth. "Oh?"

  
            He shrugged, looking down at his feet under Nathan's ugly robe. "What I did remember is that you don't...like, enjoy flowers. Not like he does," he nodded over at Nathan. Then shrugged again. "But you enjoy sweets! So. I made those."

  
            When she made no reply he chanced a look up at her through his bangs. She was smiling at him with quirked eyebrows, like she was truly touched, and his entire face warmed more.

  
            "Duke Crocker, you are such a sweetheart."

  
            He did not know what it was about the word, but he could not stop the smile that broke across his face, showing his teeth, ducking his head. He liked making her think good things about him. He liked showing her he could be thoughtful.

  
            "I wish he would be," Nathan said, and he was closer than before.

  
            Duke's gaze slid sideways to Nathan's warm, same smile. He was easier to look at and puzzle over than Audrey. He had given Duke a lot of practice at that over the years. "What?" Duke asked him, voice breaking in familiar ways.

  
            Nathan slid his hands around Duke's hips over the robe, and rubbed the arch of one bare foot over the top of one of Duke's. His voice, when it came, was quiet and deep, so deep Duke could feel it down to his toes where Nathan was rubbing them. "Be our sweetheart?"

            Duke knew he should speak, there. He felt his mouth drop open and try to form words, but nothing came out. He looked over at Audrey, where she had set the plate on her knees to focus on him. Duke felt that blue stare through to the back of his head.

  
            She ducked her chin a little, licked her lips very deliberately and, without looking away from Duke, tilted her head to indicate Nathan. "He could be our boyfriend," she told Duke.

  
            The emphasis was slight. Nathan was saying, "And she could be our girlfriend," next to his ear, but Duke only vaguely heard him over the rush of information communicated through Audrey's stare.

  
            Oh. _Oh_ what he could do with her. He turned to look back at Nathan. And what he could do with _him_ too; Nathan didn't even know it yet. He felt the shaking start, in his center, because it really could be that simple but...but there was always but.

  
            He shifted a little and Nathan shifted back onto both of his own feet, giving Duke room to pry his hand off the wall from behind his back. He was going to rub it down his face, gain some space, put a barrier between himself and what was laid in front of him for a moment. But Nathan caught it on the way.

  
            "Hey. No shakes. Easy decision."

  
            Duke gave him a disgruntled look, hating how well Nathan remembered his tells and that he was broadcasting them to Audrey, who did not know them that well yet.  
Nathan shrugged, Duke's hand held in both of his. "Yes or no. Just like that. Say no?" He stepped back and held both hands open at his sides. "Nothin' changes. We still love you."

  
            Jesus, just like that. Nathan just dropped it, in a cool moment, aware that this time they would live with the knowledge, and then could stand there and slip his hands in his pockets - Duke's fucking pockets - like nothing really did change.

  
            "We'll always be here, too," Audrey said quietly, drawing his attention. "We're not going anywhere. If you need to think about it." She had folded her hands in front of her, elbows propped on her knees. She propped her chin on her fingers, then ran it back and down, so that they covered her mouth. And that was a look Duke could live without seeing on his Audrey ever again: discontent, insecure.

            He dropped his head, letting the idea really wash over him. It was everything he had wanted without knowing it was actually what he wanted. And really, if it was what all three of them wanted… He snorted. They had been through death and destruction and the end of a world. He had to start letting himself have nice things. So he turned an honest smile on both of them. “What’s there to even think about?”

            They were on him in an instant, arms wrapping tightly around him from every direction. He slipped a hand in the back pocket of his jeans on Nathan’s ass and the other in the front pocket of his sweater to settle against Audrey’s hip. “Let’s be sweethearts,” he said into their hair.

            They stood that way, close together and _together_ , until finally being interrupted by the blaring of the smoke detector. They laughed until they were gasping as they cleaned up, and Duke thought he had never breathed so easy in his life. Three was a party, indeed.  


End file.
